Trump DOJ Targets 1991 Bias Law, Raising Bar for Discrimination Suits
Updated
Updated · Vox.com · Jun 10
Trump DOJ Targets 1991 Bias Law, Raising Bar for Discrimination Suits
3 articles · Updated · Vox.com · Jun 10
Summary
Tuesday’s Office of Legal Counsel opinion says workers suing under the 1991 disparate-impact standard should have to show a strong inference of intentional discrimination, making many employment-bias claims harder to win.
The memo extends the Supreme Court’s recent Callais ruling, which struck down the Voting Rights Act’s 1982 results test, to Title VII by arguing liability cannot rest on discriminatory effects alone.
That approach threatens a framework the Court recognized in 1971’s Griggs decision and Congress codified in 1991, which lets plaintiffs challenge practices that disproportionately harm protected groups without proving intent.
The shift could also weaken challenges to biased hiring algorithms and other neutral-seeming screening tools, including in cases like Mobley v. Workday, where disparate impact remains the key surviving theory.
A day later, the Transportation Department said it was applying Callais to its own rules, signaling the administration may push this narrower civil-rights reading across the executive branch.